Anticorruption policies revisited

Global Trends and European Responses to the Challenge of Corruption

2016, The Decisive Year for Integrity Reform in Romania

The Romanian Academic Society (SAR) together with the Prime Minister’s Chancellery, the Ministry of Justice and the Romanian Competition Council will organize the conference entitled “2016, the decisive year for public integrity reform” on Thursday, February 25th 2016, from 09:30 to 11:30 at the Athénée Palace Hilton Hotel, Regina Maria conference room.

The considerable number of indictments, temporary detentions and convictions resulting from the National Anticorruption Directorate’s activity has led to the belief that Romania is becoming a positive role model in the fight against corruption. Despite quasi-daily detentions, it is very difficult to assess whether corruption is truly declining and whether these events have a preventive role, not just a punitive one.

The aim of the conference – which will be followed by an invitation-only working seminar – is to present the up-to-date measurements on corruption in the public procurement sector (starting from 2007) and public integrity (starting from 2012), as well as the correlation between corruption and the quality or investments in infrastructure. The discussion material will be SAR’s Annual Policy Analysis and Forecast Report, which presents the results of the studies conducted as part of the “ANTICORRP: Global Trends and European Responses to the Challenge of Corruption” research project, financed through the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union (FP 7) for research, as well as the Index of Public Integrity (IPI) drafted for the Council of the European Union by the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.

The conference will consist in a round-table style discussion during which the data will be presented followed by a working group for experts (invitation-only) aimed at defining the steps necessary to improve the indicators. The IPI lists Romania second to last. Despite making progress, Romania is still far away from the EU average.

The discussion will involve SAR researchers together with Prime-Minister Dacian Cioloș and representatives from the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of European Funds, Ministry of Public Finance, Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration, Ministry of Communications and the Information Society, Ministry for Public Consultation and Civic Dialogue and the President of the Romanian Competition Council, Mr. Bogdan Chirițoiu. Representatives from the National Anticorruption Directorate, the National Integrity Agency, NGOs, as well as the coordinator of the ANTICORRP project, Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, will also be present.

This event is part of the project ANTICORRP, financed by the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union (FP 7) for research.